World News - Deputy Mistakes Pistol for Taser, Wounding Suspect He Was Trying to Get Down From a Tree. Are they going to fire him, or promote him?

A sheriff's deputy who was trying to get a man down from a tree shot and wounded him after mistakenly pulling a gun instead of a Taser, authorities say. The deputy, a five-year veteran of the force whose name was not released, was placed on leave while Thursday's shooting is investigated. Deputies carry both a Taser and a gun on their utility belts. The Taser, or stun gun, is similar in shape to the compact .40-caliber gun the deputy carried, sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilson said. The victim was listed in satisfactory condition. The man had been climbed a fig tree and stayed there for hours, talking to himself. Deputies were unsure whether he was intoxicated or psychotic, and they wanted to get him down before he hurt himself or others, Wilson said. ... http://abcnews.go.com

Iraq's government imposed a state of emergency on Baghdad and ordered everyone off the streets on Friday after U.S. and Iraqi forces battled insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and rifles near the heavily fortified Green Zone. The military announced the deaths of five more U.S. troops in a deadly week for American forces that included the discovery of the brutalized bodies of two kidnapped soldiers. Iraqi and U.S. military forces clashed with heavily armed attackers throughout the morning Friday in the alleys and doorways along Haifa Street and within earshot of the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. and British embassies and Iraqi government headquarters. ...http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_top11jun23,0,5496104.story

The accounts are brutal: An Iraqi man dragged from his home, executed & made to look as if he were an insurgent. Three prisoners killed by their Army captors. A team of revenge-seeking Marines going home to home, shooting down unarmed Iraqi men, women, children. The recent flurry of accusations against US servicemen has stunned military analysts & experts. Many see a critical new point in the war though few agree whether it shows the toll of combat stress, commanders resolved to stamp out war crimes, or, as some claim, an overzealous second-guessing of the troops. But the number and gravity of the latest allegations have drawn the greatest outcry against US military actions since the Abu Ghraib prison abuses. "All of a sudden there seem to be charges right & left," said Loren Thompson at the Lexington Institute, a defense think tank in Arlington, Va. "It clearly has happened in some cases. But it's hard to tell whether this is a pattern of wrongdoing on our part or just ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2112181

Contrary to U.S. government claims, the insurgency in Iraq is led by well-armed Sunnis angry about losing power, not foreign fighters, and is far larger than previously thought, American military officials say. The officials told The Associated Press the guerrillas can call on loyalists to boost their forces to as high as 20,000 and have enough popular support among nationalist Iraqis angered by the presence of U.S. troops that they cannot be militarily defeated. That number is far larger than the 5,000 guerrillas previously thought to be at the insurgency's core. And some insurgents are highly specialized — one Baghdad cell, for instance, has two leaders, one assassin, and two groups of bomb-makers. Although U.S. military analysts disagree over the exact size, the insurgency is believed to include dozens of regional cells, often led by tribal sheiks and inspired by Sunni Muslim imams...http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-07-08-insurgency-count_x.htm

Russia is constructing a floating nuclear power plant for remote regions that could provide energy for coastal cities. Environmentalists warn of a catastrophe at sea. And nuclear proliferation experts point out that the ship would use weapons-grade uranium to generate electricity. The concept is amazing. The new ship could be anchored along any coastline where there is no threat of a tsunami or hurricane. All local engineers have to do is attach a few cables and then the magic arrives: "the reactors are activated -- and there is light." Voilá, the world's mobile, boat-based nuclear reactor for the production of civilian power. That, at least, is how an enthusiastic Evgeny Kuzin, who works for the Russian utility company Malaya Energetika, pitches the ambitious project. ...http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,423168,00.html

The Iraqi government will present a national reconciliation plan to parliament Sunday that would grant some insurgents amnesty and ask for approval of a series of steps for Iraqis to take over security from U.S. troops, according to a key politician and a draft of the document. A draft of the 28-point proposal by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki contains an updated version of a sequence of moves - with no specific dates - preparing Iraqi forces to assume control of national security. The U.S.-led coalition wants to hand over security in certain regions while withdrawing to larger regional bases in case of emergency. A final stage would involve the drawdown of U.S. troops from those bases. ``There is no finite and U.N.-approved timeline for the withdrawal of foreign troops,'' said Kurdish politician Mahmoud Othman, a close ally of President Jalal Talabani, who was to present the plan. ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5906971,00.html